China has no time frame for Taiwan reunification, even if US says so: envoy

Washington-based diplomat’s take follows remarks by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying Beijing keen to hasten plan to seize self-ruled island

‘We don’t want to use force, but … we should have the capability to deter and prevent the worst-case scenario’ of Taiwan independence, says Jing Quan

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The USS Benfold sailing through the Taiwan Strait in July. The warship was forward-deployed to the US 7th Fleet’s area of operations to support Taiwan’s military defence capability. Photo: U.S. Navy

Published: 6:30am, 3 Nov 2022Updated: 11:30pm, 3 Nov 2022

A Chinese diplomat on Wednesday said Beijing had no time frame for the unification of Taiwan with the mainland, refuting recent assessments by US government officials that the mainland’s government had sped up plans for a military seizure across the Taiwan Strait.

“I don’t think there’s any so-called timeline over the Taiwan issue,” Jing Quan, a minister at China’s embassy in Washington, said in a discussion with Susan Thornton, a former senior US State Department official, organised by the Institute for China-America Studies, a think tank.

Jing made the remarks days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Beijing was trying to “speed up” a plan to seize the self-ruled island, based on comments by officials in Beijing during the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which wrapped up last week.

“Some people are talking about five years, 10 years, 2035, 2049. I don’t think so,” Jing said. “We want to get united as soon as possible, but we don’t have any timeline.

“Here, the interpretation, and the media’s interpretation about the party congress is not correct – to say it’s more tough and it’s focused on the use of force,” he added.

“We don’t want to use force, but at least that we should have the capability to deter and prevent the worst-case scenario, that is Taiwan independence.”